Mark Brunswick

Mark Brunswick covers military affairs for the Star Tribune. He has had assignments in Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo and has focused on domestic issues related to PTSD, returning veterans, military recruitment and the new role of women in the military. Previously, he covered state government and politics from the Star Tribune's state capitol bureau in St. Paul.

The lodge, which has been in the Kerfoot family since 1929, was sold last week to a couple who plan to continue its traditions and the outfitting operation on Gunflint Lake, 43 miles north of Grand Marais.

While it took nearly three decades for the U.S. government to eventually link Agent Orange, the defoliant used in Vietnam, to cancer, President Obama has pledged quick action to make determinations about the effect of the burn pits on perhaps as many as 60,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A father's despair over his son's death in Iraq drives home a crisis for the Minnesota National Guard, whose members have died by suicide more than all but one state Guard in the country in the past five years.

The group provides access to the programs throughout the year but uses the Edina pool every other Friday during the winter, providing a challenging but safe haven for veterans who might prefer one another's company away from the institutional surroundings of the VA.

Jurors agreed with Levi Minissale's lawyers, who claimed his service in the Marines and the "kill" mentality he learned pushed a man with history of psychosis to stab ex-girlfriend to death and attempt to kill her husband.

A local Veterans Affairs official is accused of financial misdealings for arranging to have herself transferred from the East Coast to St. Paul, keeping a higher rate of pay for a lower level of responsibility and claiming $129,000 in moving expenses.